1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cell culture device for culturing a cell using a culture vessel.
2. Background Art
Cell culture work has been carried out by a skilled worker in a clean room which is sterilized as much as possible. Thus, if a cell is to be cultured in a large quantity for industrial application, there is a possibility that a burden on the workers is increased, time and costs are required for education/training of the workers, and human errors and mix-up of test substances and moreover, those carrying bacteria might cause contamination and the like, which requires much cost to cope with them. That makes a huge barrier in industrial application. Thus, by automating a series of culture work, those problems can be solved.
Regarding the automation of processes in the cell culture, an example of automation of a process to input a culture broth into a culture vessel such as cell seeding and medium replacement is described in Patent Document 1. In patent Document 1, by attaching/detaching a culture vessel and a joint on a manipulator side by a robot manipulator, a method of connecting the joint and the culture vessel is realized. At that time, leakage of culture broth from a tube of the joint and inside the culture vessel is prevented by a valve made of a resin film so that the connection can be made while a clean state is maintained. Also, the culture broth is supplied from beneath and discharged from above for broth replacement while the culture vessel connected by the manipulator stood in a vertical direction.
Also, a method for transferring a predetermined amount of a culture broth to a plurality of culture vessels more efficiently is proposed and its example is described in Patent Document 2. In this method, means for connecting a culture vessel and a flow passage by an aseptic connector, controlling communication of the broth by a three-way valve, and feeding the broth to the plurality of culture vessels branched in the flow passage is provided.
Patent Document 1: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2006-149237
Patent Document 2: JP Patent Publication (Kohyo) No. 63-503201